Open Land is the album on which John Abercrombie opened his organ trio to three strong guests, and the title doubles as the programme. The trio, with Dan Wall on Hammond organ and Adam Nussbaum on drums, already had three records on ECM. Here the guitarist added Kenny Wheeler on trumpet and flugelhorn, Joe Lovano on tenor saxophone and Mark Feldman on violin. The trio's groove stays at the centre, but Abercrombie's writing now has a far wider range of colours to work with.
The trio had recorded While We're Young in 1992 and Speak of the Devil in 1993, then the live Tactics at Visiones in New York in July 1996. Open Land was made in September 1998 at Avatar Studios in New York. Manfred Eicher produced the session and James Farber was the engineer. Abercrombie wrote eight of the nine pieces. The ninth, Free Piece Suit(e), is credited to all six players and is the one collective improvisation on the album.
The opening Just In Tune begins with Wheeler's brass, and the larger line-up settles quickly into the easy swing of the trio records. In Spring Song the soloists take turns and answer one another, while Wall's organ moves lightly underneath. Free Piece Suit(e) is the most unusual track, a short open structure in which Feldman's violin travels from high cries to dark chromatic lines. Elsewhere, as in Remember When, Wheeler and Lovano blend into a single ensemble voice around the guitar. At around sixty-five minutes it is a generous programme, and the ten-minute title track is its longest piece.
Critics heard a group record more than a leader with sidemen. Reviewing it for AllMusic, Richard S. Ginell called it "an absorbing set of elegantly textured, poly-styled music" and singled out the guitarist's drifting, occasionally jagged lines. The Penguin Guide to Jazz wrote that "this feels very much like a collaborative project rather than a leader-plus-group", adding that Abercrombie still seemed quietly in charge. In Vintage Guitar in August 2000, Michael Dregni described the music as pure sonic landscape, wandering between song heads and improvisation.
This is the CD edition of the album, catalogue number ECM 1683, first released by ECM in 1999.
